


Black and White.

by 20dollarfobleed



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Gen, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 10:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4915378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/20dollarfobleed/pseuds/20dollarfobleed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And so, it turned out, Joshua Dun was one for color.</p><p>Or, the au where when people see black and white their entire lives, and only see color when touching their soulmate. The person, however, must be 21 or older to get their soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black and White.

Josh had heard stories about them from his parents.

_Colors._

He was only told of the main six colors. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. 

It seemed like such an abstract concept, that everything wasn't just black and white. It seemed.. weird, unnatural, off balance, hectic, crazy.. Josh could go on forever. It just didn't seem right.

Joshua Dun was not one for color.

 

* * *

 

 

"Josh! Get over here!" Mark called to him, and so he did. Standing behind him was a lanky boy with black bands wrapping around one of his arms, and Josh liked the tattoos. They were neat. "This is Tyler, the dude puts as much passion into his music as you do into your drums."

Josh turns to Tyler and holds out his hand with a smile on his face, but Tyler smiles sadly. His teeth flashed white. "Sorry it's just-I don't really like touching other people." he says. "It's a thing for me."

"No problem, man! Just tell me if I overstep my boundary, I'm Josh." he says while lowering his hand, and Tyler seems to look relieved.

The two end up talking for the rest of the night.

 

* * *

 

 

It happens on accident. The two are on the tour bus, and playing Mario Kart. It was Josh's 21st birthday, but he had decided that he just wanted to keep it simple, so Tyler suggested the two play the game and he agreed happily.

It wouldn't have happened if Mark hadn't pushed him. He tumbles down and manages to knock Tyler down in the process, squeezing his eyes shut and bracing himself for pain.

But then, fuck, then he opens his eyes. And suddenly Tyler's eyes are a rich brown and the couch is red and the game is a fucking rainbow and Josh can't believe he's been missing out on this his entire fucking life.

"Oh my god," he gasps, looking around the room in amazement.

"What, Josh?" Tyler laughs, and then Josh realizes that fuck, this means Tyler is his soulmate. Tyler Joseph is his soulmate.

"Don't you see it?" he asks, still looking with wide eyes around the room.

And Josh never knew that a simple sentence could shatter his heart. "What are you talking about?" Tyler asks, eyes innocently peering into Josh's.

"Oh my god, oh fuck." Josh rips his hand away from Tyler's, scrambling to get away from him, because Tyler isn't his soulmate. This isn't right. Josh can feel tears welling up in his eyes as he gets away from the newly dubbed brown haired boy. 

"Josh? Are you okay?" Tyler asks worriedly, because he never curses like that. Mark is staring at Josh with confusion.

"No," Josh chokes out, "But don't worry, I'll be okay in a bit. I just-"

"Josh, what's wrong?" Tyler asks, taking Josh's wrist in what was supposed to be a gesture of comfort. Josh panics as color floods his vision.

"STOP!" he yells, twisting his hand out. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Tyler jerks back in surprise, and hurt flashes across his face but Josh doesn't stay around long enough to see it.

He runs out of the bus, twisting his hair as he goes. He doesn't know where he's going, but he just starts walking away from the bus.

Hours and hours of walking pass before Josh doesn't know where he is, and scopes out the area. Seeing a coffee shop nearby, he checks to make sure he has enough money to buy a cup before walking in.

"Well then, you've obviously had a shitty day." One of the employees say when he walks in, and he can feel more tears well up. He feels pathetic, that something that small could set him off again. "Oh-hey man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be like that. Go sit in the corner and I'll prepare you something." Josh nods before angrily wiping his tears away and sitting where he was told.

He tries to get his heart rate to calm and breathing slow, taking in deep breaths before finally getting some sense of calm. When he opens his eyes back up, he's surprised to see the employee sitting across from him, watching him, with the cup of coffee nudged forward. "Why didn't you say you were there?" Josh croaks out.

"No offense, but it kinda looked like you were on the edge of a panic attack, I figured I should let you calm yourself down."  


Josh sighed, "You were right. Thank you." he takes a sip of the coffee, not even flinching as it burns down his throat. It takes his mind off of his sadness for a second.

"Something's obviously bothering you, do you want to talk about it? My name's Gerard by the way." the guy says, and Josh decides that he's most likely never going to see Gerard again so why not tell him his problems.

"Well today's my twenty first birthday," Josh starts, and knows by how Gerard tenses up that he knows where this is going, "And my soulmate is my band mate. Only he didn't see the colors when I saw them. I didn't even know that could happen." he sighs, reaching up and twisting his hair again. 

"Fuck, that's a really shitty birthday present." Gerard says, and by how he flushed after the words come out, Josh is guessing he didn't mean to say that.

Josh laughs lightly, "Yeah, I guess it is." he downs the last of his coffee. "I should probably head back, I left long time ago and they're probably worried."  


"Alright man, take care of yourself, okay? And don't worry about the cost of the coffee, it's the least I can do on such a bad day." 

"Thank you, Gerard. I'll maybe see you again." Josh says, before walking out of the small shop. He wonders around for a little longer before deciding to head back the direction he came, not even paying attention to his surroundings as he made the long way back.

He sighs as the tour bus comes in view, but nonetheless climbs on. 

He's surprised to see all of the crew and Tyler's head whip around too see who came in the bus. "Oh, Thank Christ!" Tyler said. "Where did you go for so long? Why didn't you answer the calls. We were going crazy!" Josh sat down at the couch and everyone surrounded him. He felt like a child being scolded. He shrugged.

"I just went walking." 

Tyler scoffs. "Walking? For 5 goddamn hours!?"

"Well how would you feel if your best friend was your soul mate?!" Josh said before he could stop himself, and everyone seemed to stop in shock.

"What?" Tyler whispers, and his voice cracks, like he's scared of what Josh could potentially see.

His laugh is without humor, "That's why I freaked out earlier, Tyler. When I accidentally fell on you-I, I saw the colors, okay? And then you didn't fucking see them back, and I didn't know why the fuck God would do something like that. That's just a big _fuck you_ to me, isn't it? I swear, the universe hates me." He let his head fall between his hands, too scared to look up and see the reaction of everyone.

"Josh, I... I don't know what to say." Tyler says.

"Yeah, me either." he pauses, "But I think the band needs to take a break." he said, and Tyler nods.

"Yeah, that's probably best. I'll go-uh, tell the fans." he says, and stocks away to wherever his phone is. Then Josh is left being stared at by the entire crew, and shrinks under their gazes. Finally it gets too much and Josh gets up and walks to the bathroom, locking himself in there. He pulls out his phone, and, scrolling through his Twitter feed, sees that Tyler just tweet.

something awful has happened, band's taking a break-not sure for how long. terribly sorry to all. Josh feels tears start to fall down his cheeks. He doesn't know how long he'll need to recover from this, but he guesses it will be a while.

 

* * *

 

 

Later that month, when Josh is back in his apartment, he'll actually miss that joy and happiness that flooded through him when he thought Tyler was his soulmate, and when he could see color. He saw the beautiful brown Tyler's eyes and hair are, and he'll miss that too. 

He'll go out to the store and buy hair dye, the label says it's red, and he'll try to dye his hair and foolishly, he thinks he'll be able to see the color in his hair. He wants something other than the same two colors, taking the life out of everything he lays his eyes on.

He'll cry when his hair is the same black he's seen his entire life, not a hint of red in the locks.

He'll all Tyler in the bathroom with him, and ask softly if he can hold his touch him, just this once, to see how his hair looks. Tyler of course will agree, and Josh will cry again when he looks in the mirror again to see bright red before gaining composure and letting go of Tyler, watching the black seep back to his roots. And he'll thank Tyler, saying it won't happen again.

And it never did. 

 

* * *

 

 

A couple years later, on tour for Vessel, Tyler announces that he proposed to his beautiful girlfriend and soulmate, Jenna, at a show. And he'll send Josh a look of pity after announcement, and everyone in the venue feels a little bad for cheering because they know, everyone knows, it was all over the media when Josh finally relented and said what happened.

Josh doesn't really like Jenna that much. And it's not even because of the soulmate thing-honest.

It's just that she once threatened Josh to stay away from Tyler. He had laughed bitterly, saying "The universe decided you two should be together, there's no need to worry." And that she always gasped in fake amazement whenever Tyler held her hand and she could see color, saying how _beautiful_ everything looked, and making sure she was loud enough that Josh heard it.

But, of course, he never said anything. There was nothing left to say.

 

* * *

 

 

When Tyler asks Josh to be his best man, of course Josh agrees.

When the wedding finally comes, Josh cries afterward, knowing that he'll never get to experience his wedding day, knowing that he'll never be in love or wake up next to someone or see color again.

He'll always see life with the same two colors. Black and White.

 

And so, it turned out, Joshua Dun was one for color, he just didn't know it until he knew what he was missing out on.

**Author's Note:**

> this is so sad aw als o im so tired tbh


End file.
